The Wallet of Kai Lung eBook

large a sum is not made clear until the detail of
Ming-hi’s scheme is closely examined. The
matter then becomes plain, for it had been suggested
by that person that the most proficient in any occupation
should be rewarded to a certain extent, and the least
proficient to another stated extent, the original
amounts being reversed. When those engaged by
Chang Hung to draw up the various rates came to the
profession of ensnaring winged insects, however, they
discovered that Lee Sing was the only one of that
description in Fow Hou, so that it became necessary
in consequence to allot him a double portion, one amount
as the most proficient, and a much larger amount as
the least proficient.

“It is unnecessary now to follow the not altogether
satisfactory condition of affairs which began to exist
in Fow Hou as soon as the scheme was put into operation.
The full written papers dealing with the matter are
in the Hall of Public Reference at Peking, and can
be seen by any person on the payment of a few taels
to everyone connected with the establishment.
Those who found their possessions reduced thereby
completely overlooked the obvious justice of the arrangement,
and immediately began to take most severe measures
to have the order put aside; while those who suddenly
and unexpectedly found themselves raised to positions
of affluence tended to the same end by conducting
themselves in a most incapable and undiscriminating
manner. And during the entire period that this
state of things existed in Fow Hou the really contemptible
Ming-hi continually followed Chan Hung about from
place to place, spreading out his feet towards him,
and allowing himself to become openly amused to a
most unseemly extent.

“Chief among those who sought to have the original
manner of rewarding persons again established was
the picture-maker, Pe-tsing, who now found himself
in a condition of most abject poverty, so unbearable,
indeed, that he frequently went by night, carrying
a lantern, in the hope that he might discover some
of the small pieces of money which he had been accustomed
to throw into the air on meeting Lee Sing. To
his pangs of hunger was added the fear that he would
certainly lose Lila, so that from day to day he redoubled
his efforts, and in the end, by using false statements
and other artifices of a questionable nature, the
party which he led was successful in obtaining the
degradation of Chan Hung and his dismissal from office,
together with an entire reversal of all his plans
and enactments.

“On the last day of the year which Chan Hung
had appointed as the period of test for his daughter’s
suitors, the person in question was seated in a chamber
of his new abode—­a residence of unassuming
appearance but undoubted comfort—­surrounded
by Lila and Lee, when the hanging curtains were suddenly
flung aside, and Pe-tsing, followed by two persons
of low rank bearing sacks of money, appeared among
them.